Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-07-09
Two Experts In the Business Caught In
the Act One Of Them Mr..
Beecher's Bad Boy
But the Dandy was Mr.. Harvey Of the
Auditors Office Who Got
Away with 500, 900.
Young Beecher Charged With Standing
in With Opium Smuggling and
Defrauding His Pals.
An Expert Accountant.
ALSO A FORGER AND FRAUD.

ALSO 4 FORGER AND FRAUD.
WAsHINGToN, July 8.-Something of
sensation was created in the Treasury De
Epartment this afternoon that q trusted of
fetal in the department had been guilty Of
a systematic attempt to defraud the Gov
ernment. The officer was arrested at
Wilkesbarre yesterday afternoon, as he
was about to take the train for Washing
ton, and his dismissal from the service was
ordered by Secretary Fairchild this after
noon. His name is Oscar J. Harvey, and
he has been employed in the department
since June, 1885, when he was appointed
chief OF the horse claims division of the
Third Auditors Office. It was while he
held this position that he perpetrated the
frauds with which he is now charged. On
the second of June last he was transferred
to the head of division in the Second
Comptroller's Office, the division which has
charge of claims of the same nature as
those in the division which he had just left.
Austin II. Brown, of Indianapolis, sue
ceeded Harvey as chief OF the no rse
claims, and soon after he took charge OF
the Office
HE DISCOVERED THE FRAUDS
of which his predecessor had been guilty.
This consisted Of the passage Of forty-three
fraudulent claims for horses aggregating
$92, 900 and the preparation of many ad-
ditlonal cases of q similar nature which
we're under consideration in the Office. In
most cases the claims are for horses lost
during the late war and are presented in
the names OF officers of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey regiments. All of the cases ap.
Reared to have been prosecuted by W: ".
Wynn, of Philadelphia and then uf Wash
ington and the service of J. C. Manford,
notary public OF Philadelphia were called
into requisition in connection with the
necessary affidavits, the work involved
in the stealing of numerous incriminating
papers from the files of the department..
In thirteen claims it was found that sigma
lures involving the names of
THIRfY.EIGHT OFFICERS, WERE FoRGERIEs.
Subsequently it was found that the second
auditors name had been forged to the GER
tificates received from that Office and also
that none Of the Pennsylvania and New
Jersey cases, in which Wynn was attorney
were entered on the record of that office.
The claims which had been allowed were
then overhauled. In almost every instance
it was found that the second auditors GER
tificates as to signatures had been ab-
stracted together with other papers.
The stamp of the mail room in the third
auditors Office, and the stamp OF the
horse claims division had been forged and
the dates arranged so as to bring them
within the limitation fixed for Cling these
claims. The stamp of the Quartermaster
Generals Office was also forged.
THE DRAFTS WERE REGULARLY ISSUED,
and examination of such as been returned
as paid. it show that Harvey and Wynn
are one and the same person and that al
though the drafts were drawn in favor OF
claimants, the money with one or two ex-
captions, went directly to Harvey or some
relatives He had secured their payment
by forging the signature of the payee, and
then endorsing the draft with his own
name, antford, the Philadelphia notary
public, like Wynn, attorney, was found to
be myth. Most of the notaries and per.
SONS named in the claims are
UNKNOWN TO THE DEPARTMENT.
In addition to the forty three cases passed,
there has been one hundred and fifty cases
adjusted, aggregating 100000. and there
are still pending and unadjusted sixty eight
cases, amounting to $4,000. making q
total of one hundred and sixty-one fraud.
ulent cases which might eventually be paid
but for the discovery. Harvey was brought
to the city by officers of the secret service
who have kept him under surveillance
since he was first suspected. He asked tn
see the Secretary, and when he was in
formed of the evidence against him